


Chapter Eight: Blinded, Betrayed, and Forgotten

by CavalierConvoy



Series: MTMTE Series One: Shoot Straight with a Crooked Gun [9]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers Generation Two, Transformers: Beast Machines
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Ghosts, Investigation, Other, Possession, Quantum Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-11 00:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3308852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CavalierConvoy/pseuds/CavalierConvoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three hundred years from now, the proximity to the malfunctioning quantum generator is causing hallucinations, phantom memories, and the revelation that the shell Starscream possessed was still inhabited by the original owner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chapter Eight: Blinded, Betrayed, and Forgotten

You've betrayed me  
Yes, I did  
And why did you return to me?  
I just wanted  
to see you fall again  
Blinded, Betrayed and Forgotten  
—["BBF"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUZlFmEElrY) by Mechanical Moths, from _Torment_

  
Cybertropolis  
Iacon District  
Three hundred stels from now, and two decacycles ago

The ship had jumped after the massacre. Starscream took pleasure in describing his findings to support the theory: had this 'bot not screamed when he merged with the rock face, the way no one was fighting the jump, attempting to get away, the position of the bodies —

"Enough," Pantera snarled. "Slag got unreal here, I understand that. I don't need a play-by-play."

"What, is the hardcore veteran getting squeamish? You don't find this the least bit fascinating?"

"I lack the ability to separate my scientific interest with the decency to understand that these 'bots were murdered, execution style."

"You're still on that topic?" Starscream looked up at a white and blue Minibot, pinned to the wall by a beam through the chest. "There's nothing you can do for them, Arty. Nothing. This is an anomaly in our reality. This did not happen. It's a derelict of what could have been, had something in our past took a left instead of a right. You've listened enough of the boy's quantum prattling to understand that much."

"No, Starscream," Pantera retorted, "I have not."

Starscream's optics widened just enough in surprise.

"What do you mean, 'the boy'? Skyfire? The shell you inhabit?" Pantera stormed to the smaller Maximal, her free hand balled into a fist.

 _Not extended claws...she's in beat down mode._ Starscream backed away, holding out his hands. "How else am I reading as living? Skyfire wasn't completely dead when I possessed him — that's how I survived long enough to get back to Earth! You knew that!" He backed up against a fallen 'bot.

"Here I was, living with the knowledge that you killed a Maximal just for his shell." She pressed the head of the hammer into his chest, leaning forward. "What you're saying," she snarled, showing fang, "is Skyfire still exists. He's trapped in there with you...and you're trapped in there with him."

"Put that way...Artemis, please, we don't have time to air out old grievances. Yes, the boy's still conscious. Call it a penance, if you may — I have a sentient conscience gnawing at everything I do. But we don't —"

Pantera had stopped listening to him; she relaxed her arm, bringing the hammer back to her side, as she backed up, her head craned to look up.

"Why," she whispered, "is Cyclonus here?"

Starscream stiffened, turning his head to look up at the 'bot he had pressed against. "Could have been one of the attackers," he presumed.

Pantera shook her head, pointing the hammer at the chest wound of Galvatron's second in command. "Same as Magnus and this ship's me — blast through the chest, similar radius. They were killed with the same gun. Too much of a threat to torture. No, he was one of the crew." She grimaced. "Which makes no sense whatsoever."

"No insignia," Starscream observed.

"How can you tell?" Pantera demanded.

"You focus your hatred on the guy who took your job for a couple of centuries, you'll remember every little detail. That blast is too low to take out his badge completely. But there's nothing there, no indication of ever there was one. This Cyclonus was never wore a Decepticon insignia."

"'Tera? Sky?"

"Elder! Are you in here?"

"Silverbolt, Nightscream! Stay where you are!" Pantera ordered.

"The others must be on their way," Starscream whispered; his optics cooling to blue.

"What happened here?" Silverbolt demanded, his tenor echoing.

"We're trying to figure that out!"

"Did Megatron do this?" Nightscream questioned. "These are all Autobots! How did we miss this?"

"Silverbolt, you're crowd control! Don't let anyone get through — we're dealing with something much darker than Megatron!" Pantera ordered.

"Then we should leave this place to the ghosts!" Silverbolt retorted.

"We can't!" Skyfire interrupted. "If Megatron gets his hands on the engine, we're as good as fragged — everything we've done for nothing! We've got to make sure it's nonoperational!"

"Is Primal on his way?" Pantera questioned.

"He and Rattrap, yeah!" Nightscream answered.

"There may be trapped sparks here — Skyfire's picking up a lot of spectral activity!" Under her breath, she muttered, "Rattrap's returning? I'm surprised."

"Why tell them about the sparks?" Starscream asked, still using Skyfire's voice.

"Because it will keep Primal from searching us out," Pantera explained. "This...isn't meant for him."

"How unlike you to read into a disaster personally."

"I found myself dead on board. Yeah, I'm going to read into this."

"You think they'll recognise you?" This was Skyfire.

"The only one who could recognise me before I was Pantera is you."

"I'm not even going to pretend to understand how I do what I can do," Skyfire continued, "but there's residue. If I can pick it up, so can Primal. He will ask questions."

"I'll burn that bridge when I get there," the feline Maximal growled. "Who are you? Right now."

Skyfire's shoulders slumped. "I figured it was easier just to let you believe I was Starscream all this time. Less complicated." He bowed his head. "Sorry, 'Tera."

"How long have you been aware?" She led the charge, hand choked up on the hammer, as she pressed on, entering a stairwell meant for much larger Cybertronians.

"From the start," Skyfire revealed. "The moment my spark started collapsing, and when he took over. It wasn't until the Oracle reformatted my shell and merged what was left of my spark with Starscream's did I regain some control over the situation. And, just to let you know, he's just as horrified about what happened here, he's just not admitting it. Actually, that's not entirely true." The avian Maximal stood on the top of the stairwell; Pantera looked up at him from midway down. "He has a suspicion of what caused this massacre, and that's what horrifies him."

"And what is it?" Pantera's tone hinted guarded feelings; she was not ready to believe him.

Still, Skyfire retained control. "Decepticon Justice Division. That's — that's what I keep hearing, over and over, in my head."

"The DJD is a bogeyman story," Pantera reminded. "Made up by hostel wardens to keep young Autobots well-behaved. They don't exist."

"Then why would the Decepticon Air Commander be terrified by the very thought of them?" Skyfire demanded.

"Because he's a gashole who manipulates everything he touches to his benefit?" Pantera snapped. "Look, I'm just as freaked out as you are, and if I'm seemingly like I'm not quite believing you —"

"I understand," Skyfire nodded. "How do you know I'm not what I'm saying I am? I have my doubts as well."

To this, Pantera said nothing, only turned her back to him and continued down the stairwell. Skyfire took to the air, gliding past her and into the darkness.

_"'Everything he touches turns to slag.' I remember you telling me that."_

"And I bet you couldn't find anything good to say about him, either," she muttered, and caught herself. Why would she had said that?

_"He was a pretty flyboy scientist. That's about it. But you had a personal gripe with him. You didn't talk much about him, but we knew he hurt you."_

She furrowed her brow. "I'm a private person," she whispered, "why would I tell you anything about my past?"

_"Because we're friends."_

"Maybe you and the Artemis back there were friends," Pantera observed, "but I don't know you."

_"Perhaps you're right. Sorry about that."_

The voice seemed hurt, and that resonated in her own spark. "Look, I'm sorry. This — this whole scenario's getting to me. I'm not usually this blunt."

_"You were when I knew you. Blunt like the hammer you carried."_

"Arty! Get down here!" Starscream might have as well shouted "Frag my cover!"

She bolted, the hammer in a two-fisted grip, following his echo. She found him in what appeared to be a weapons lab; her back brain cheered at the possibilities.

"Something seems to be missing here," Starscream muttered, searching around a blue and yellow 'bot — a flyer, lightweight jet, face down under the debris from an overturned shelfing unit. "I don't know what, but something's missing."

"Do you think the engine is really a threat?" Pantera interrupted. "Shouldn't we hit that first?"

"This place is wrong," Skyfire whispered. "'Tera, we need to do something — we can't let it be here. We've got to get rid of it."  
"It's affecting him now."

"What's affecting him — affecting us?" she demanded, snapping her fingers. "Oi, flyboy, with me, no arguing, no wandering off. I need your science-brain front and centre. Let's find the fraggin' engine room and do what we need to take it down."

Skyfire backed away from the dead mech, as though reluctant to leave any treasures behind.

"Look, we can come back here afterwards; but you said so yourself: we need to take out the engine. It's causing our reality to break down, right?"

"Yeah..." There was no indication who was in the driver's seat; the tone in his voice was neutral, could have gone either way. "The quantum generator. We've got to be on alert — don't touch anything that looks off, or not solid. I think. Primus, my head!" He pressed his palms into his optics. "Dammit! We're so close!" He gasped, meeting Pantera's face with wild, reg-gold optics, fully Starscream. "This is our chance, Artemis! We could destroy Megatron and his Vehicons with what's on board this ship!"

Something...shifted. Pantera felt her consciousness slide, she fell to her knees as pain flared through her spark.

When her vision returned, she found herself staring down at a teal and silver Legion Cybertronian, wielding an immobiliser staff. Her arms and legs were bound on a rack.

"Was that the best you can do?" Artemis spat, a cock-eyed grin forming on her split face.

The Legion Decepticon slammed the tip of the staff into the wound in her chest once more. She gritted her teeth, bit down on the agony surging through her circuits.

 _"Stay strong, Art,"_ the voice from the other vision comforted. _"Your friends are nearby."_

Next Chapter: The Warrior inside


End file.
